Book: Own Your Own Future, by Paul Brow et al

Chinese sage Lao Zi once said: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." That borderline cliché has assumed new relevance, it seems.

In Own Your Future: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur and Thrive in an Unpredictable Economy, Paul Brown suggests you scrap long-term career planning - instead, start designing your own job now, by taking cautious, canny and deliberate steps, because your current job is toast.

"Been to a music store lately? Drop off any photos to be processed? Used a pay phone? Read an afternoon newspaper … Probably not," Brown writes, showing the sharpness that makes his "gig economy" guide highly readable - and the pages fly by.

Their meaning is easily absorbed because Brown, a long-time contributor to The New York Times, recaps and sprinkles his tract with bullet points. Meanwhile, he disarmingly knocks standard motivation guru smugness.

"We aren't big on clichés like 'Every time God closes a door He opens a window', or 'There are no such things as problems, only opportunities'," he writes.